Cryptic Manuscripts May Hold Key to Finding Missing Student

Internet sleuths are hammering away at their Mountain-Dew-soaked keyboards trying to piece together the strange clues left behind in a mysterious missing person case out of Rio Branco, Brazil. The story began when 24-year-old student Bruno Borges went missing, seeming to disappear directly out of his family’s home on March 27. According to his family, this is the first time he has gone missing. His family had reported that he had been locked in his room for days working on a “secretive project” when he went missing. When his family finally entered his room, they were not prepared for what they found next.

Nearly every surface of Borges’ room was covered in impeccable handwriting containing Bible passages, occult symbols, alchemical formulae, references to the works of Leonardo da Vinci, and aliens. The room was empty of furniture and a massive statue of 16th-century philosopher Giordano Bruno stood in the center. Bruno is best known for being burned at the stake as a heretic for claiming that distant stars might be orbited by planets containing alien life.

Many sources have noted that some of the symbols resemble those used in hermeticism, a ‘rejected’ quasi-mystical knowledge system that exists separate from those of religion and science.

Strangest of all, Borges’ desk was covered in fourteen handwritten books encrypted with unknown glyphs which feature giant red roman numerals on their covers. Netizens have already managed to allegedly translate some of the passages based on photographs and YouTube videos:

It is easy to accept what you have been taught since childhood and what is wrong. It is difficult, as an adult, to understand that you were wrongly taught what you suspected was correct since you were a child. In other words, if you fit into the system, your behaviour will be determined, making you at the mercy of beliefs already provided and well established in dogmas and rituals, with the masses.

Brazilian police are investigating the case but so far have no leads. Meanwhile, 4chan and Reddit forums have taken to decoding many of the messages found in Borges’ room. Borges’ family has likewise reportedly hired cryptography experts to begin deciphering their son’s cryptic manuscripts in an attempt to understand what might have happened to their son.

Is this a case of a misunderstood genius tapping into cosmic powers beyond most individuals’ comprehension, or an unfortunate display of mental illness? Borges would be about the right age for certain psychological disorders such as schizophrenia to begin manifesting themselves. For now, this one remains a bizarre, unsolved mystery.